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Staying power.

Establishment Republicans have been eager to get past the part of the election cycle where Ron Paul has played an outsized role. Rand Paul's recent endorsement of Mitt Romney divided libertarians, but the Paul heir's apparent capitulation to business as usual actually underscores how the GOP faces a more complex challenge to the ideological status quo.

Rand's willingness to play ball with the powers that be takes on a much different cast than it would if Ron wasn't still a powerful force on his own. Instead of hanging up his spurs, Paul the Elder is raking in the cash: $1.78 million in May, leaving him with over $3 million in the bank. That's not much relative to Mitt Romney's almost $77 million take that month with the RNC. But, combined with Ron's persistent impact in the wake of the primaries -- Iowa is sending a largely Paulite slate of delegates to this year's nominating convention -- it's enough to keep independent libertarians active in Republican party politics.

That makes for a two-prong Paul family strategy: play an outsider's game and an insider's game. While Ron keeps the grassroots purists happy, Rand admits freely that he'd be "honored" to serve as Romney's vice president. From one angle, this seems a dangerous approach: it could give the Pauls the worst of both worlds, discrediting themselves among libertarians and Republicans alike.

There are two potent reasons why it's not such a high-risk move, however. First, there's not much of an alternative. Second, libertarians and Republicans alike have a deep-seated need to have it both ways in just the manner the Pauls are achieving.

Consider the alternatives to the two-prong strategy -- giving up on politics altogether, assimilating completely into the Republican party, and doubling down on the Libertarian party itself. It's clear that libertarians are enjoying their moment of increased national relevance; given the libertarian cast of some frustrations on the left with Obama and the continued disenchantment of many conservatives with establishmentarianism on the right, there's much less to savor about turning a cold shoulder to the national political scene. Yet, the time is not yet ripe for a full push to burrow into the heart of the GOP. Ron and Rand may actually both be setting libertarianism on a course for a much closer encounter with the centers of Republican power, but libertarians are far from ready to check their identity at the door. Finally, no matter how well-regarded and competent Gary Johnson may be, the Libertarian party itself is an ineffective organization that still struggles with credibility and unity from the ground up. For the foreseeable future, the future of libertarian Republicanism belongs to the Pauls.

Despite the protracted bickering and fretting this may cause, it leaves everyone on the right better off. Booting the Paul people from the GOP might gratify some neoconservatives, it's not possible to expel them without performing a full libertarianectomy -- and any Republican who's willing even to risk that outcome just isn't serious about winning elections (to say nothing of any fealty to Reagan Republicanism). Likewise, awkwardly navigating the borderline between libertarian and Republican purists is the only way to reassemble an effective voting and governing coalition that can replace the current administration and hold the line against congressional Democrats and movement liberals.

More than grief, Ron and Rand deserve applause from the factions they're working to bring together.